Editing Go Ask Alice (section)

==Reception==

===Public reception===
Upon its 1971 publication, ''Go Ask Alice'' quickly became a publishing sensation<ref name=stegall>{{cite news|last=Stegall |first=Tim |date=2015-01-02 |title=Book Review: Review: Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose |url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2015-01-02/dear-nobody-the-true-diary-of-mary-rose/ |newspaper=[[The Austin Chronicle]] |location=[[Austin, Texas]] |access-date=2016-12-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404202739/http://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2015-01-02/dear-nobody-the-true-diary-of-mary-rose/ |archive-date=2016-04-04 }}</ref> and an international bestseller, being translated into 16 languages.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /> Its success has been attributed to the timing of its publication at the height of the [[psychedelic era]], when the negative effects of drug use were becoming a public concern.<ref name=adams>{{cite magazine |last=Adams |first=Lauren |date=September 1998 |title=A Second Look: Go Ask Alice |magazine=[[The Horn Book Magazine]] |pages=587–592|location=Boston |publisher=The Horn Book Inc. |via=ProQuest  }}</ref> Alleen Pace Nilsen has called it "the book that came closest to being a [[young adult fiction|YA]] phenomenon" of its time, although saying it was "never as famous as [the later] ''[[Harry Potter]]'', ''[[Twilight (novel series)|Twilight]]'', and ''[[The Hunger Games|Hunger Games]]'' series".<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /> In addition to being very popular with its intended [[young adult fiction|young adult]] audience, ''Go Ask Alice'' also attracted a significant number of adult readers.<ref name=stegall /><ref name="Esq"/>

Libraries had difficulty obtaining and keeping enough copies of the book on the shelves to meet demand.<ref name=whatreviewerswrote>{{cite news |date=1978-01-22 |title=What Reviewers Wrote |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/22/archives/long-island-weekly-what-reviewers-wrote.html |newspaper=The New York Times — Long Island Weekly |page=6 L.I |access-date=2016-12-26 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240528005218/https://www.webcitation.org/6n2zlexg4?url=http://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/22/archives/long-island-weekly-what-reviewers-wrote.html%3F_r=0 |archive-date=2024-05-28 |url-status=live |via=Proquest |url-access=subscription  }}</ref><ref name=meyers>{{cite news |last=Meyers |first=Christene C. |date=1974-05-05 |title=Controversial Book Popular in Billings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/60480052/ |newspaper=[[Billings Gazette]] |location=[[Billings, Montana]] |page=18 |access-date=2016-12-27 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> The 1973 television film based on the book heightened reader interest,<ref name=meyers /> and librarians reported having to order additional copies of the book each time the film was broadcast.

By 1975, more than three million copies of the book had reportedly been sold,<ref name=boettner /> and by 1979 the paperback edition had been reprinted 43 times. The book remained continuously in print over the ensuing decades, with reported sales of over four million copies by 1998,<ref name=oppenheimer /> and over five million copies by 2009.<ref name=yagoda /> The actual number of readers probably surpassed the sales figures, as library copies and even personal copies were likely circulated to more than one reader.<ref name=beidler>{{cite book |last=Beidler |first=Philip D. |date=1994 |title=Scriptures for a Generation: What We Were Reading in the '60s |url=https://archive.org/details/scripturesforgen00beid |url-access=registration |location=[[Athens, Georgia]] |publisher=The University of Georgia Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/scripturesforgen00beid/page/36 36]-38 |isbn=9780820317878 |author-link=Philip Beidler }}</ref> ''Go Ask Alice'' has been cited as establishing both the commercial potential of young adult fiction in general, and the genre of young adult anti-drug novels,<ref name=oppenheimer /> and has been called "one of the most famous anti-drug books ever published."<ref name=hendley />

===Critical response===
''Go Ask Alice'' received positive initial reviews, including praise from Webster Schott in ''[[The New York Times]]'', who called it an "extraordinary work", a "superior work" and a "document of horrifying reality [that] possesses literary quality".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/07/archives/childrens-books-what-do-yas-read.html|title=Childrens Books|last=Schott|first=Webster|date=1972-05-07|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-05-26|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> It was also recommended by ''[[Library Journal]]'', ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'', and ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'',<ref name=adams /> and ranked number 1 on the [[American Library Association]]'s 1971 list of Best Books for Young Adults.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carr |first1=Mary |last2=Van Horn |first2=Carole |date=1972 |title=Books for Children and Young People: Critical Health Problems|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MvUaAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA316 |journal=Wisconsin Library Bulletin |volume=67-68   |issue=September–October 1972 |pages=316 |edition=Google Books |publication-date=2006-10-12 |publisher=Division of Library Services, Department of Public Instruction |access-date=2017-03-04  }}</ref> Some reviews focused on the realism of the book's material, without further addressing the literary merit of the book.<ref name=durchschlag /><ref name=janke /><ref name=adams /><ref>{{cite magazine|date=1971-09-14 |title=Go Ask Alice by Anonymous |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anonymous-3/go-ask-alice/ |magazine=[[Kirkus Reviews]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170106211907/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anonymous-3/go-ask-alice/ |archive-date=2017-01-06 |url-status=live |access-date=2017-01-06 }}</ref> According to Nilsen and Lauren Adams, the book was not subjected to the regular forms of literary criticism because it was presumed to be the real diary of a dead teenager.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /><ref name=adams /> Lina Goldberg has suggested that the publishers were motivated to list the author as "Anonymous" partly to avoid such criticism.<ref name=goldberg />

Years after its publication, ''Go Ask Alice'' continued to receive some good reviews, often in the context of defending the book against censors (see [[#Censorship|Censorship]]).<ref name=chapman /> In a 1995 ''[[Village Voice]]'' column for [[Banned Books Week]], [[Nat Hentoff]] described it as "an extraordinarily powerful account of what it's actually like to get hooked on drugs" that "doesn't preach".<ref>{{cite news |last=Hentoff |first=Nat |author-link=Nat Hentoff |date=1995-10-03 |title=Ralph Reed's Reading List |page=10 | work=The Village Voice |location=New York City |via=ProQuest  }}</ref>

However, starting in the 1990s, the book began to draw criticism for its heavy-handedness, melodramatic style and inauthenticity, in view of the growing evidence that it was fiction rather than a real teenager's diary (see [[#Authorship|Authorship and veracity controversies]]).<ref name=oppenheimer /><ref name=white /><ref name="jamison">{{cite news|last=Jamison|first=Leslie|date=2014-05-27|title=What's the Best 'Bad Book You've Ever Read?|newspaper=The New York Times Book Review|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/books/review/whats-the-best-bad-book-youve-ever-read.html|url-status=live|access-date=2017-01-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140601002410/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/books/review/whats-the-best-bad-book-youve-ever-read.html|archive-date=2014-06-01}}</ref><ref name=adams /><ref name=valentine>{{cite news|author-last=Valentine |author-first=Jenny |author-link=Jenny Valentine |editor-last=Drabble |editor-first=Emily |date=2015-08-28 |title=Banned, Burned, or Simply Life Changing: What Are the Best Dangerous Books? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/aug/28/banned-burned-or-simply-life-changing-what-are-the-best-dangerous-books |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=2017-01-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231175807/http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/aug/28/banned-burned-or-simply-life-changing-what-are-the-best-dangerous-books |archive-date=2015-12-31 }}</ref> Reviewing the book again for ''The New York Times'' in 1998, Marc Oppenheimer called it "poorly written", "laughably written", and "incredible", although some other writers have pointed to the material as being plausible or even appealing to young readers.<ref name=adams /> The portrayal of the diarist's drug use, progressing from unwittingly ingesting LSD to injecting [[amphetamine|speed]] within a few days, and making a similar quick transition from her first use of [[marijuana]] to [[heroin]], has been deemed unrealistic.<ref name=white /><ref name=goldberg /><ref name=cuseo>{{cite book |last=Cuseo |first=Allan A. |date=1992 |title=Homosexual Characters in YA Novels: A Literary Analysis 1969–1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Extln1Ju_WAC&pg=PA62 |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Scarecrow Press, Inc. |pages=62–64 | isbn=9780810825376 }}</ref> The book has been criticized for equating homosexuality with "degradation", illness, sin, and guilt.<ref name=cuseo /> More recent analyses have expressed ethical concerns with the book's presentation of fiction to young readers as a true story.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /><ref name=goldberg /><ref name=valentine /> Despite all these criticisms, the book is frequently called a young adult classic.<ref name=white /><ref name=beidler /><ref>{{cite news|author-last=Everson |author-first=Katie |date=2015-09-08 |title=Why I've Written a Book for Teenagers About Taking Drugs |url=https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/sep/08/teenage-drugs-books-katie-everson |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=2017-01-07 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102234506/https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/sep/08/teenage-drugs-books-katie-everson |archive-date=2017-01-02 }}</ref>

===Educational use===
Although school boards and committees reached varying conclusions about whether ''Go Ask Alice'' had literary value,<ref name=boettner /><ref name=clarke /> educators generally viewed it as a strong cautionary warning against drug use.<ref name=clarke /> It was recommended to parents and assigned or distributed in some schools as an anti-drug teaching tool. However, some adults who read the book as teens or [[preadolescence|pre-teens]] have written that they paid little attention to the anti-drug message and instead related to the diarist's thoughts and emotions,<ref name=jamison /><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Moss |first=Gabrielle |date=May 2006 |title=Guidance Counseling |url=http://www.lostmag.com/issue6/counseling.php |magazine=LOST Magazine |location=New York City |publisher=lostmag.com |access-date=2017-01-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617014549/http://www.lostmag.com/issue6/counseling.php |archive-date=2012-06-17 }}</ref> or vicariously experienced the thrills of her rebellious behavior.<ref name=white /><ref name=adams /> Reading the book for such vicarious experience has been suggested as a positive alternative to actually doing drugs.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Julie |date=November 2002 |title=When Parents' Rights Are Wrong: Should Parents Be Able to Prohibit Their Kids From Reading School Library Books? |journal=School Library Journal |volume=48 |issue=11 |pages=43 |via=ProQuest  }}</ref> ''Go Ask Alice'' has also been used in curricula dealing with mood swings<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=A Study Guide for Joanne Greenberg's "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ulCVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT33 |location=Farmington Hills, Michigan |publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]], [[Cengage Learning]] |page=PT 33 |date=2016 |isbn=9781410348944 |series=Novels for Students |quote=The novel ''Go Ask Alice'' (1971), by James Jennings, written in diary form, tell [sic] the story of a teenage girl who suffers from terrible mood swings that are exacerbated by drug use. }} Although this source identifies the book's author as "James Jennings", without further discussion, no other reliable source support has been found for a person named James Jennings being an author or co-author of the book.</ref> and death.
{{anchor|Authorship}}